What is "Quê Hương?"

In Vietnamese, we have the phrase “quê hương,” which means “homeland.” I’ve often struggled with defining what is homeland. Is it one’s place of birth? If you ask my dad, he would say that homeland is where your mother was buried, and I don’t know if I agree with that definition either. Or is it one’s place of naturalization, as defined by the First Nation’s “Original Man” story?

Well, according to the immortal Vietnamese poet Đỗ Trung Quân, he seems to agree with the First Nation’s concept of “quê hương” (clumsy English translation by me):

Quê hương là chùm khế ngọt

(Homeland is the sweet starfruit clusters)

Ϲho con trèo hái mỗi ngàу

(For you to harvest each day)

Quê hương là đường đi học

(Homeland is the road to school)

Ϲon về rợp bướm vàng baу

(That you walk home with the yellow butterflies)

Quê hương là con diều biếc

(Homeland is the blue kite)

Tuổi thơ con thả trên đồng

(That flies with your childhood over the rice fields)

Quê hương là con đò nhỏ

(Homeland is the little boat)

Êm đềm khua nước ven sông

(Softly floating on the river)

Quê hương là cầu tre nhỏ

(Homeland is the little bamboo bridge)

Mẹ về nón lá ngiêng che

(That mom walked home each day,

With her straw hat tilting)

Quê hương là đêm trăng tỏ

(Homeland is the moonlit sky)

Hoa cau rụng trắng ngoài thềm

(Front porch covered with white palm blossoms)

Quê hương mỗi người chỉ một

(Homeland, each only has one)

Ɲhư là chỉ một Mẹ thôi

(Just as each only has one mother)

Quê hương nếu ai không nhớ

(Homeland, if one does not remember)

Ѕẽ không lớn nổi thành người

(One will never know one’s self)

Regardless of how one defines “quê hương,” one conclusion is certain: that Earth is our one common “quê hương” and we all have the responsibility to live here as if we owe our future posterity, because we do.